Many viewers of performances, whether live or broadcast, and perhaps especially viewers of films and television shows enjoy making comments to each other about what they are seeing unfold before them. For example, in recent times, friends and family members may gather together to watch a movie or television show, wherein part of their shared communal experience may include talking to each other during the show or film about what is going on in the show. Sometimes, comments may be in the form of serious questions or commentary, and other times, comments may be made in a light-hearted and humorous way.
As individuals' lives have become busier and as family and friends have become more dispersed from a single geographic area, in modern times, opportunities for communal viewing have decreased, and more video content is being viewed independently and individually. Additionally, video content viewing is often time-shifted, for example, via the use of digital video recorders (DVRs) and consumption of video on demand (VOD) content, such that friends who may be geographically close may not watch video content at the same time.
A variety of attempts have been made by various social networks or social television aggregators to provide assorted types of “live chat” experiences during television programs or other broadcast events. Although such solutions may help to enable users in remote locations to make comments while they watch a same show, the users may be restricted to simultaneous viewing of video content. As can be appreciated, simultaneous watching of video content, especially by users who are located in different time zones, may be challenging, and “live chat” in time-shifted content may be not be provided.
Although users may be less likely or able to communally watch video content, the desire for shared viewing experiences still exists. It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.